Tag Archives: mike okiro

An uproar has broken out over the re-assignment of the former Electoral Commissioner (ELC) of Ekiti state, Ayoka Adebayo, and demands for her resignation have promptly followed.

Leading the protest for Adebayo’s removal is the state chairman of NLC, Momodu Braimoh. In the letter forwarded to the presidency by Brainoh and his secretary it reads:

“We received the unexpected information concerning Ayoka Adebayo, former Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State, recently posted to Ondo State. Ondo and Ekiti are sister states, and we know much about the electoral fraud perpetrated in Ekiti State, though denied, especially during the re-run gubernatorial and senatorial elections presided over by Mrs. Adebayo.”

Adebayo proves that a dodgy past is no barrier in Nigerian politics

The letter refers to the electoral controversy in 2009, when she falsely elected Mr Segun Oni as the winner of Ekiti state’s re-run election. Adebayo has now been appointed as the ELC of neighbouring Ondo state despite accusations of fraud during her former post, which resulted in the widower going into hiding and being declared as ‘wanted’ by then Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro.

The trouble began when Adebayo refused to declare the winner of the 2009 election, later claiming that she did not want to announce a false winner which would have been against her Christian morals. The ruling party of the last 11 years, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was said to have mounted pressure on the commissioner to announce a false result. The party also bizarrely rejected a request for her own resignation with the Minister of Information and Communication, Professor Dora Akunyili, claiming that the letter was ‘suspect’ – whatever that means.

So do we vilify Adebayo, who has taken up the role of ELC in a state neighbouring the one she failed so miserably with the last time round? Or do we place the blame on the ruling party, the PDP, that some suspect coerced and threatened Adebayo?